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n a wild fight that got the crowd in Brazil going crazy, Rousimar Palhares beat Dan Miller on Saturday night at UFC 134, winning a decision in a fight he briefly believed he had won by first-round stoppage.

Palhares is a Brazilian jiu jitsu specialist, but his striking looked better than ever against Miller. In fact, in the first round he twice knocked Miller down with head kicks, and the second time, after he rained some punches down on a badly hurt Miller, he thought he had won the fight and got up and started celebrating before referee Herb Dean grabbed Palhares and told him the fight wasn't over.

That moment (which was reminiscent of an EliteXC fight between Cris Cyborg and Shayna Baszler) is what this fight will be most remembered for: Palhares celebrating and thinking the fight was over as Miller got some time to recover and Dean tried to restore order. It's not clear whether Palhares stopped because he thought Dean had told him to, whether he thought he had knocked Miller out, or whether he thought Miller had tapped out. But Palhares may have become overly cautious about stopping in such situations because he was once suspended by the New Jersey State Athletic Commission for not letting go of a submission quickly enough.

The truly amazing thing is that after Dean got the fight started again, Miller landed a big punch and almost knocked Palhares out. If he had, that would have been the craziest comeback in UFC history.

Instead, Palhares recovered and controlled the rest of the fight, winning by the unusual set of scores of 30-25, 30-27 and 29-27. The judges might not agree on the scores, but everyone would have to agree that Palhares dominated, and looked great doing it.

In a great back-and-forth battle at UFC 134, Stanislav Nedkov stayed undefeated in mixed martial arts by defeating the Brazilian Luiz Cane in front of a partisan crowd in Rio de Janeiro.

Nedkov was making his UFC debut and was an underdog against the more experienced Cane, and in the early going it appeared that Cane was getting the upper hand with his striking. But after looking stiff in the early going, Nedkov began to look more comfortable with his punching combinations, and eventually a right-left combination hurt Cane and had him running away.

From there Nedkov gave chase, landed a few more punches and eventually knocked Cane down and finished him with more punches on the ground. If anything the referee's stoppage was slow; Nedkov clearly had Cane out.

Nedkov's MMA record now improves to 12-0, and there's no question that he deserves to be considered one of the rising stars of the light heavyweight division. He's a 29-year-old with some big fights ahead of him.

Cane has now lost three of his last four, and all three losses were by first-round TKO. Cane is talented, but he needs to regroup and get his career back on track

After a 15-minute stand-up battle, Edson Barboza won a split decision victory over Ross Pearson Saturday night at UFC 134.

The fight was a lot of fun, especially for people who like a good contrast in striking styles. Barboza has a wider array of strikes in his arsenal, and he showed a lot of them off during the fight, with combinations, spinning kicks and knees. Pearson, however, is a better pure boxer than Barboza, and when Pearson could close the distance and land punches, he had the advantage.

The fight could have gone either way, but two judges scored it 29-28 for Barboza, while one scored it 29-28 for Pearson.

The 25-year-old Barboza improved to 9-0 in his MMA career and said afterward that he'd like to move up and take on tougher opposition in the lightweight division. It would be interesting to see Barboza against a good wrestler; we've seen what Barboza can do standing up, but we haven't seen how he does when the fight goes to the ground.

Pearson, a former Ultimate Fighter winner, has now lost two of his last three. But he fought well against Barboza and should continue to get good fights within the lightweight division. Both of these guys put on a good show.

In his first fight since losing the UFC light heavyweight title, Shogun Rua showed that he's still a force inside the Octagon, knocking out Forrest Griffin in the first round at UFC 134.

A hard right hand had Griffin stumbling toward the ground, and Rua went on the attack, knocking Griffin down and jumping on top of him. From there Rua rained down punches from the top, and the dazed Griffin could do nothing but flail in his attempts to block Rua's punches. As Rua began to land hammer fists Griffin couldn't do anything, and the referee eventually stepped in to stop it after it was clear Griffin was out of it.

Although Rua was brutalized by Jon Jones at UFC 128 in March, no one should take that result as evidence that Rua is done: He improved his professional record to 20-5 and showed against Griffin that he has plenty of fight left in him.

Griffin, who fell to 18-7, will always be one of the UFC's most popular fighters, and he'll have a lot more big fights ahead of him. But this bout showed that while Rua is among the truly elite fighters in the light heavyweight division, Griffin is not.

Anderson Silva is still the best fighter in the world, and on Saturday night his Brazilian fans got to see it first hand.

Silva put on one of his textbook striking displays against Yushin Okami at UFC 134, winning a second-round technical knockout, thrilling the crowd in Rio de Janeiro and making a strong case that he's the greatest champion the UFC has ever seen.

Silva is now 31-4 in his mixed martial arts career, including 14-0 in the UFC. His 14-fight streak is unmatched in UFC history.

The victory was revenge of a kind for Silva, as the last time Silva lost it was to Okami in a 2006 fight before either man had signed with the UFC. That loss was a controversial disqualification when Silva landed an illegal kick, but this time there was nothing controversial about it, it was just Silva showing he's the best in the world at what he does.

"I train hard for the best guys in the world," Silva said afterward. "I'm ready to fight."

The first round didn't have a lot of action, as Silva spent the early part of the round feeling Okami out on his feet and finding his range, and Okami and Silva clinched against the cage without landing any significant strikes for the middle part of the first round. It wasn't until the end of the round that Silva started to let his strikes go, including a big head kick in the closing seconds, and that was enough to give an otherwise close round to Silva.

At the start of the second round Silva really started to bring it on, knocking Okami flat on his butt with a right jab, then letting Okami get back up only to batter him with more punches, including another right hand to knock Okami down again. This time Silva followed Okami to the ground and battered him repeatedly until referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight.

Silva's striking is on another level from the rest of the MMA world. He showed on Saturday night why he's the best.

The Brazilian mixed martial arts legend Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira finally fought in Brazil for the first time in his career Saturday night, and he made the most of it with a first-round knockout of Brendan Schaub in front of a raucous Rio crowd at UFC 134.

Nogueira, an aging star who hadn't fought in a year and a half, appeared to be slower than the Nogueira of old in the early going, and it was easy to see why so many people thought the powerful Schaub would knock him out. But Nogueira bided his time and waded in at just the right instant with a hard 1-2 punch combination that sent Schaub against the fence.

From there Nogueira closed and landed another big left hand, sending Schaub face-first into the canvas, and a couple more punches on the ground were landed before referee Herb Dean stepped in to stop the fight.

"I was injured, I had surgery in both hips and my knee, but I sacrificed because I had never fought at home," Nogueira said afterward, gesturing to the Brazilian fans. "I wanted to fight for them."

Nogueira improved his professional MMA record to 33-6-1 and showed that he still has what it takes to compete in the UFC's heavyweight division. Schaub falls to 8-2.

There was no submission in the 12 fights on the card at HSBC Arena in Rio, so UFC president Dana White said at Saturday's post-fight press conference he got to save a little money. Previous six-figure bonuses have been awarded at UFC 129 in Toronto, where fighters got $129,000 bonuses after fights in front of a UFC record of more than 55,000 fans. And at UFC 100, bonus winners also got $100,000 each..
Nogueira won Knockout of the Night for his first-round stoppage of surging heavyweight contender Brendan Schaub. Nogueira, fighting for the first time in front of his home country after more than 40 career fights, and just a mile from his gym and three miles from his home, returned after an 18-month layoff to record the upset. Schaub had won four straight fights.

Nogueira had to beat out several other candidates for the KO award, including debuting Brazilian Erick Silva, who stopped fellow countryman Luis Ramos just 40 seconds into the first round. And on the main card, Stanislav Nedkov upset Luiz Cane with a first-round TKO and Shogun Rua beat Forrest Griffin with a first-round finish, as well.

In the main event, Nogueira's Blackhouse teammate Anderson Silva defended his middleweight title for the ninth straight time with a TKO of Yushin Okami. And that, too, could have vied for the knockout bonus.

Barboza and Pearson each won $100,000 for Fight of the Night for a close bout that saw Barboza, from Brazil, win a split decision. Pearson seemed to win much of the standup battle, though Barboza scored a knockdown early in the second round. Barboza improved to 9-0 overall and 3-0 in the UFC. The Fight of the Night bonus was his second straight.